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      <h1><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><a name="top"></a>Starkick 
        Traders Strategy Guide </font></h1>
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    <TD>
      <h2><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Introduction: </font></h2>
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      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><img src="images/pictorial/ContainerShip.jpg" width="240" height="179" align="right">Welcome 
        to the Starkick Traders Strategy Guide!</font></P>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">This is a game of intergalactic 
        exploration. Players explore the universe, trading for commodities and 
        increasing their wealth and power. Battles can be fought over space sectors 
        and planets. In this document you will find some some strategies to get 
        you started.</font></P>
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      <h2><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Table of Contents: 
        </font></h2>
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      <ol>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><A 
        href="strategy.html#strategies">Strategies:</A> </font> 
          <ol>
            <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><A 
          href="strategy.html#strategies1">The Trader</A> </font></li>
            <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><A 
          href="strategy.html#strategies2">The Builder</A> </font></li>
            <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><A 
          href="strategy.html#strategies3">The Banker</A> </font></li>
            <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><A 
          href="strategy.html#strategies4">The Conqueror</A> </font></li>
            <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><A 
          href="strategy.html#strategies5">The Idiot</A> <BR>
              </font></li>
          </ol>
        </li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><A 
        href="strategy.html#misc">Misc.</A> </font> 
          <ol>
            <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><A 
          href="strategy.html#misc5">Combat</A></font></li>
          </ol>
        </li>
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      <h2><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Strategies: </font></h2>
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    <TD> 
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">These are some generic 
        strategies to help you get started. These aren't set in stone, and are 
        very general. They should give you an idea of what works and what doesn't 
        work. Of course there are many more strategies, but these are the ones 
        I thought up at 2 in the morning. :) </font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Special Note: For all 
        of these strategies I am assuming that you have already survived your 
        first couple of days in the game. If you are still a newbie, read the 
        <A 
      href="newplayer.html">New Player Guide</A> first. If you have not subscribed 
        yet, do so. You will never win the game unless you can upgrade your ship 
        enough and besides, you get free cloning which is dead useful (sorry for 
        the pun).<BR>
        <BR>
        </font></P>
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      <h2><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><A name=strategies1></A>The 
        Trader</font></h2>
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    <TD> 
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">The Trader primarily 
        spends his time trading. The best thing to do is find a goods port and 
        an ore port in adjacent sectors. Trade back and forth until either you 
        can afford a hull upgrade or the port's prices are no longer very good. 
        Keep doing this. When your engines are large enough to efficiently use 
        realspace (usually anywhere from 14 to 18) start doing trade routes between 
        goods and ore ports. They don't have to be adjacent at this point. Be 
        sure to buy a fuel scoop if you're going to realspace trade (trade route) 
        as you'll be able to sell any energy you scoop on the way for extra profit. 
        </font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Be sure to have the 
        maximum amount of EWDs and an escape pod at all times to ensure survival. 
        You don't have to upgrade any techs except for hull, energy, and engines. 
        Everything else is good for combat or colonizing. Your military techs 
        can be zero as the EWDs are your primary means of survival. </font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><B>PROS:</B> Quick rise 
        in score. Good to play catch up if you enter the game late. <BR>
        <B>CONS:</B> Lack of planetary empire means that you could lose out in 
        the long run.<BR>
        <BR>
        <a href="#top">Back </a></font></P>
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    <TD>
      <h2><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><A name=strategies1></A>The 
        Planet Trader</font></h2>
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    <TD> 
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">The Planet Trader is 
        a more advanced version of the Trader. First find a sector with either 
        an organics port or an Energy port in it and make some planets there. 
        Destroy all the warp links to and from the sector and hope no one finds 
        you. Fill planets with colonists and tell them to make goods. Set up a 
        two-way trade route from your planet to the port and syphon off the goods 
        every so often. An intra sector traderoute only takes 2 turns so this 
        is a great way to make money!</font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><B>PROS:</B> Great way 
        to make cash quickly. Good to play catch up if you enter the game late. 
        <BR>
        <B>CONS:</B> The local port can fill up and not want to buy your goods 
        after a while..<BR>
        a variety of commodities but also fill up the planets with as many fighters 
        and torpedoes as you can - you'll need this to defend them later on. You've 
        now got a choice: sell commodities from your planets to passing players 
        and Furangee or use the planets yourself to generate cash. Once you've 
        got enough defenses you can do both. </font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><a href="#top">Back 
        </a></font>
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    <TD>
      <h2><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><A name=strategies1></A>The 
        Furangee Salesman</font></h2>
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    <TD> 
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">This is quite a difficult 
        and unproven strategy so far but could be very lucrative.</font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">First find a sector 
        lots of warp links and make some planets there. Fill up the planets with 
        as many fighters and torpedoes as you can. Anything over 10m fighters 
        should be enough but you want them heavily protected to stop take overs. 
        If you make enough planets and bases to own the sector make sure that 
        ship to ship attacking is still allowed otherwise Furagnee will not frequent 
        your sector (Furangee always need to option to attack). Once all your 
        planets are in place fill them with colonists and tell them to make a 
        variety of commodities. Furangee link different things. Then destroy all 
        the warp links going out of the sector but keep one link or make a link 
        that goes to a port in another sector. Fly to that sector and destroy 
        all the warp links going out of that one too except for the link going 
        back to your planet sector. What you want is lots of ways for Furangee 
        to get to your planets but not many ways to get out. :-)</font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Then set all your planets 
        to sell commodities and rack the price way up to max. You might want to 
        avoid selling energy because that is vital to your planet's survival. 
        Then all you have to do is wait and Furangee will eventually pop into 
        your binary system and start trading, and trading and trading.. You might 
        want to switch off the alerts because they will bop back and forth trading 
        like mad. Eventually they pop out of your system or you might want to 
        kill them.</font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><B>PROS:</B> Makes cash 
        by itself once it's set up.. <BR>
        <B>CONS:</B> Difficult to set up and defend. You cannot use sector defenses 
        or stop ship attacks.</font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><a href="#top">Back 
        </a></font> 
      </TD>
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    <TD>
      <h2><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><A name=strategies2></A>The 
        Builder</font></h2>
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<td>      
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">The Builder is mainly 
        concerned in building a planetary empire. As such, he should aim for a 
        hull level of about 15 or 16 and then start colonizing a planet. Colonize 
        planets to about 25-50 million people before moving on to the next planet. 
        </font> 
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Here's the deal on upgrading: 
        When you hit a 15-16 hull level, upgrade everything to within 4 of your 
        hull. Actually, forget about sensors. Builders don't need sensors. They 
        don't need armor either for that matter. Always have full EWDs and an 
        escape pod. Every time you upgrade your hull, upgrade the other techs. 
        Stop upgrading engines when you can efficiently use realspace to get anywhere 
        in 1 turn. Upgrade as soon as you can. </font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">As far as colonizing 
        is concerned, realspace to a special port. Pick up a full load of colonists, 
        fighters, and torpedoes. Make sure that your hull is empty before you 
        go there so you can fill up to the max. Realspace to your new planet. 
        Drop off colonists, fighters, torpedoes, and the energy you made from 
        realspacing. On each new planet, set the energy production to 5% and all 
        other productions to zero. You'll need the energy to power your planetary 
        shields and beams (laser weapons) and any sector defenses you deploy in 
        the future. </font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Colonize constantly. 
        Use the money made by your planets to buy the stuff to supply your planets. 
        You don't really need to trade much in this strategy. </font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><B>PROS:</B> You make 
        lots of cash in the long run. <BR>
        <B>CONS:</B> Kind of slow to start. Conquerors can sometimes take your 
        planets. <BR>
        <BR>
        <a href="#top">Back </a></font></P>
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    <TD>
      <h2><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><A name=strategies3></A>The 
        Banker</font></h2>
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    <TD> 
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">The Banker builds one 
        planet to full capacity. Upgrade as though you were a builder. Be sure 
        that the planet is extremely well defended. Keep adding fighters. If you 
        think that the planet has a ridiculously high number of fighters, then 
        it's probably the right number. I'd recommend spending something like 
        5-10% of your turns adding more fighters and torps to the planet. </font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Okay, here's the way 
        the Banker makes his or her living: Put all your money on the planet and 
        then land on the planet. It should be well defended enough to survive 
        any attacks. Wait 600 turns, during which the money will earn interest. 
        Play the 600 turns as though you were a Trader to make cash. At the end, 
        put the new money on the planet and wait another 600 turns before you 
        play again. The important thing is to let the money sit around and accrue 
        interest for as long as possible. </font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">This strategy works 
        fairly well if you combine it with a Builder, i.e.. Build a bunch of planets, 
        but Bank on one of them. Harder to defend your empire this way. </font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><B>PROS:</B> You can 
        make a metric buttload of cash if you're patient. <BR>
        <B>CONS:</B> You can only play occasionally and you don't have many planets 
        to produce for you. <BR>
        <BR>
        <a href="#top">Back </a></font></P>
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  <TR> 
    <TD>
      <h2><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><A name=strategies4></A>The 
        Conqueror</font></h2>
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    <TD> 
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">The premise here is 
        that you build up your military techs (shields, armor, computers, torps, 
        and to a lesser degree sensors) and use them to take other people's planets. 
        You then use the money acquired from these new planets to upgrade even 
        further. You end up with lots of ill gotten colonists and planets this 
        way. They will make money for you and you will gain an empire similar 
        to that a Builder might create. </font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Be sure to stock every 
        new planet acquired with plenty of fighters and torps to be sure that 
        the former owner won't come and try to take the planet back. Trust me, 
        that sucks. </font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><B>PROS:</B> You can 
        get a whole lot of colonists using a small number of turns. <BR>
        <B>CONS:</B> Everyone will hate you and it's sometimes hard to defend 
        new "acquisitions". <BR>
        <BR>
        <a href="#top">Back </a></font></P>
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    <TD>
      <h2><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><A name=strategies5></A>The 
        Idiot</font></h2>
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    <TD> 
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">This is more a list 
        of what not to do. I've seen people do things that boggle the mind, but 
        the truth is that they just don't know any better. Here's a listing. Don't... 
        </font>
      <OL>
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">...scan over and 
          over and over. It is a waste of turns. Don't scan ships or planets unless 
          you actively plan on attacking them. For one, it's a waste of turns. 
          Also, it gets people angry. You will be marked if you scan someone more 
          than once. </font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">...waste too much 
          time trading energy or organics. Ore and goods will give you the greatest 
          returns. </font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">...realspace move 
          unless you can get somewhere in only a few turns. I've seen people use 
          50-100 turns to move from where they are to Sol. You could probably 
          move from sector to sector and find a special port (there are more than 
          one!) using less turns. Plus you might find other planets or trading 
          ports along the way. </font></LI>
      </OL>
      <p><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><a href="#top">Back 
        </a></font></p>
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    <TD>
      <h2><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><A name=misc5></A>Combat</font></h2>
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    <TD> 
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">In any one fight, 100% 
        of your fighters can be deployed but you can only use 2% of the torpedoes 
        you have stockpiled. Why? Because the torpedo launchers mounted on your 
        ship or planet can only launch a salvo equal to 2% of the maximum torps 
        you can have. </font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Combat also requires 
        energy for beams and shields and your laser beams take power first. Example: 
        If you have 20k energy on your ship and your beams can support 25k beams 
        and your shields are at 25k shields, you'll actually get 20k beams and 
        0 shields. Make sure you scale your energy to match your equipment capabilities! 
        </font>
      <h3><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><B>Ship to Ship Combat</B> 
        </font> </h3>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Ship to ship combat 
        is very straightforward. Here we go: </font>
      <OL>
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Engines: The better 
          your engines are compared to your opponent the better chance you will 
          have of keeping the fight going. <BR>
          <BR>
          </font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Sensors determine 
          whether you can lock on to your target or not.<BR>
          <BR>
          </font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">If the defender has 
          an Emergency Warp Device, it is used and the defender is sent to a random 
          sector. If the defender has no Emergency Warp Devices, combat continues.<BR>
          <BR>
          </font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Beams are used to 
          destroy fighters first. The more beams you have, the more fighters you'll 
          take out. If you destroy all of the fighters then the beams target your 
          opponent's shields. If you destroy all of the shields and still have 
          beam energy left they will fire on the ship's armor - pierce that and 
          you've won! <BR>
          <BR>
          </font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Torpedoes are fired 
          after beam weapons are exhausted and target fighters first and then 
          armor.<BR>
          <BR>
          </font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Now, fighters attack. 
          Fighters are so technically advanced that quite simply it's tit for 
          tat. If you have any fighters left, they attack the defender's armor. 
          If the defender doesn't have enough armor left, too bad.<BR>
          <BR>
          </font> 
        <LI><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">If either player 
          has armor of 0 or less, they are dead. If you die, life sucks. You learned 
          a hard lesson. If your opponent dies and you live, you get some money 
          based on salvaging his ship.</font></LI>
      </OL>
      <p><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><a href="#top">Back 
        </a></font></p>
      <h3><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif"><B>Ship to Planet Combat</B> 
        </font> </h3>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">This is very similar 
        to ship to ship combat. If the defender's ship is not on the planet, then 
        the planet is considered defeated if its shields and fighters are reduced 
        to 0. This will not destroy the planet, it will just make it available 
        to you to capture. </font>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">If the planet's owner 
        is on the planet, then things are slightly different: </font>
      <ol>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Your beams can take 
          out up to half of the planet's fighters. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Planet beams take 
          out up to half of your fighters. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Owner beams take 
          out up to half of your fighters. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Player beams go against 
          planet shields. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Planet beams go against 
          your shields. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Owner beams go against 
          your shields. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Your beams go against 
          owner armor. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Planet beams go against 
          your armor. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Owner beams go against 
          your armor. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Your torp damage 
          takes out planet fighters. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Your torp damage 
          takes out up to half of the owner's fighter. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Planet torps take 
          out up to half of your fighters. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Owner torps take 
          out up to half of your fighters. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Your torp damage 
          goes against owner's armor. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Planet torp damage 
          goes against your armor. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Owner torp damage 
          goes against your armor. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Your fighters go 
          against planet fighters. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Your fighters go 
          against owner fighters. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Your fighters go 
          against planet shields. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Your fighters go 
          against owner armor. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Planet fighters go 
          against your armor. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">Owner fighters go 
          against your armor. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">If your armor is 
          0 or less, you die. Bozo. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">If owner armor is 
          0 or less, he dies. Good job. </font></li>
        <li><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">If you're alive, 
          he's dead, and the planet has no fighters or shields, you win and get 
          the planet. Well played. </font></li>
      </ol>
      <P><font face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif">See, I told you it was 
        easy. <BR>
        <BR>
        <a href="#top">Back </a></font></P>
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